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unexplored worlds.” She blinked at the door to her own room, which was next to Tellenberg’s. “It’s good that our individual living quarters are so well soundproofed. I wouldn’t want my snoring to keep you awake.” As the door slid aside, she stepped through. “Myself, I sleep like a stone. After everything that’s happened today, I anticipate doing so with no trouble tonight.”
    But she was wrong, and the cause of her
slumber interruptus
had nothing to do with either her occasionally errant breathing or the self-conscious desires of her captivated neighbor next door.

3
    Tellenberg had been only partly correct. The surface life-support modules were very well soundproofed—but their sound-dampening properties were not perfect. Certainly not when large, heavy objects came banging and rattling against them in the middle of an otherwise peaceful, dead-silent night.
    Sliding off his inflatable sleeping platform, he stumbled to the hallway door and opened it. Illumination panels emitting their own soft blue internal glow allowed him to see both up and down the corridor without having to touch either wall to intensify the light. Nor did he need anything in the way of artificial amplification to allow him to hear an incensed Boylan roaring in the distance. The captain’s impassioned bellows soared even above the general clamor that accompanied them, like a brass choir rising above the rest of a fully-engaged orchestra.
    Another door opened farther down the corridor and N’kosi stepped out. The xenologist was already dressed. Not only that, he gripped his standard-issue field pistol in one hand. Eyeing his alert colleague, it occurred to a still-awakening Tellenberg that this was an eminently sensible reaction to unexpected violent noise accompanied by the initial inklings of mounting chaos. As relevant neurons responding to his increased wakefulness began to fire with greater frequency, he considered returning to his own room to put on some clothes and pick up some gear. On the other hand, he told himself as he struggled toward full awareness, the racket that had awoken him was likely due to nothing more than an unusually unruly equipment malfunction. From the tone of the captain’s voice, Boylan was already on the case.
    As a cautious N’kosi came up beside him both men peered up the dim but adequately illuminated corridor. “Any idea what’s going on?”
    Tellenberg shook his head. “Something banging on the outside wall woke me up. Now it sounds like it’s moved inside.”
    “Same here.” The other xenologist gestured. “I think maybe that’s Boylan coming this way now.”
    Since his eyesight was not as sharp as that of his companions, N’kosi could be excused for his mistake. The error rectified itself as the figure barreling toward them resolved itself into a shape. Not only was it not the captain; it was not even remotely human.
    Squat and thickset, it was shorter than either of the two gaping scientists; shorter even than Valnadireb. Instead of moving in sequence like the limbs of a terrestrial quadruped, the creature’s four legs appeared to rotate from front to back in the style of a tracked vehicle. Powerful but stubby arms terminated in circular hands that were tipped with inward-curving talons. Additional claws were visible on the feet while the wide mouth set in the middle of the half-spherical skull was festooned with fangs that arced in all directions; a Vesuvius of dentition. Set in pairs at the top and bottom of the skull, a quartet of crimson eyes flashed in the reflected light of the hallway. Additional sharp spines jutted from joints, back, and flanks.
    One arm cradled a bucketful of rounded stones. Letting out a roar, the creature reached in, selected a rock the size of a fist, and flung it in the xenologists’ direction. N’kosi ducked to one side and a startled and nearly naked Tellenberg to the other as the rock sailed between them. The assault demonstrated tool-using of the most